Vail Resorts’ CEO says it’s time to think beyond the $1,000 ski pass that helped build the empire

Adding to the pressure on Vail, it has been the second difficult winter in a row. Last year, in addition to insufficient snow in many locales, the company saw a 12-day ski-patrol strike close most runs at its largest resort in Park City, Utah, leaving countless customers disappointed, including venture capitalists energetically taking to X to air their dissatisfaction over having to wait in long lift lines. The crisis led to the departure of former CEO Kirsten Lynch a few months later.

Because Vail’s business model is predicated on people buying passes that cost around $1,000 upfront, on sale for a limited time months before the start of the season that give them access to dozens of resorts in the U.S. (both East and West), Canada, Switzerland and Australia, revenue fell only 4.7% in its most recent quarter, largely because of fewer ski rentals and fewer lodge rooms booked. (In North America, visits were down 11.9% through March 1.)

Now the focus is on next season: Sales of the Epic Pass have been slow for a couple of years now, and Vail brought back its former long-time CEO Rob Katz to steer the company through the effects of climate change, a slow-growing industry, and growing competition from other sports.

“We’ve had some challenges, some of which were on us, some of which were not,” Katz, CEO from 2006 to 2021 in his first go around, told Fortune earlier this month. “In coming back as CEO, the most important thing was realizing that the industry is different now, the consumer is different, the company is different.”

One place these differences are playing out is in the resort’s pre-paid, multi-resort passes. Under Katz, Vail pioneered that concept with its Epic Pass (its largest rival, Alterra Mountain Company, offers the Ikon Pass), which locks in revenue and shields an operator from the hit from weather variability from region to region by luring skiers willing to go where the snow is.

One of Katz’s realizations is that the pass is a business tool in need of rejuvenation. Some skiers may feel that they didn’t get their money’s worth for two seasons in a row. Meanwhile the rising cost of the already expensive sport is keeping many young people away.

“It’s a matter of making sure that the pass is the best deal,” says Katz. In early March, right before Vail put its 2026-27 passes on sale in a major test of its business, the company announced 20% price cuts for skiers and riders under age 30. Katz also says Vail needs to push lift tickets to reach skiers less interested in the commitment of a full pass. “We need to be more aggressive on lift tickets,” said Katz. That has meant, for instance, offering 30% off a lift ticket if reserved a month ahead of time.

Vail is also aiming to expand its customer base by attracting skiers of color in the U.S. “We don’t see the same kind of market penetration with communities of color as with the white community and we need to continue to expand,” he said. That has played a big part in why Vail has stuck with its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, despite pressures that have led countless other corporations to walk them back partly or even entirely.

“I think people who come to our resorts don’t all see people who look like them,” Katz says. “We need to have folks in our company who are reaching and know how to make connections in those communities.” So Vail has teamed up with the National Brotherhood of Snowsports, an advocacy group that looks to find and develop talented skiers of color, among other initiatives.

With increasingly variable weather, Katz says he is focusing himself and his teams squarely on what they can control. “In a year like this, we can’t control the weather. We’ve got to constantly be looking to improve and maybe most importantly, when we don’t get it right, we need to admit it.”

And he will, of course, be keeping his fingers crossed for more snow next season.